1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ink jet recording techniques are being applied to the field of commercial printing, particularly with growing demand for photo books and photo albums. Photo books and photo albums are typically in a center-folded form that is made by folding in half each recording medium on which images or other information have been recorded, and bonding the folded media together. In the production of such a photo book or photo album, when image-recorded media are each folded, the images are liable to be cracked along the fold line (this phenomenon is hereinafter referred to as fold cracking). Accordingly, recording media used in the field of commercial printing is required to have high resistance to fold cracking (hereinafter referred to as hold crack resistance), in addition to the characteristics generally required of recording media, such as high the characteristics of exhibiting high ink absorbency when high-speed recording is performed and of providing high color developability to the recorded image.
One of the approaches for preventing cracking at the surface of a recording medium is to increase the flexibility of the recording medium. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2004-237485, 2001-096898 and 2008-183807 disclose methods for increasing the flexibility of a recording medium. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-237485 discloses a recording medium including an ink receiving layer containing a resin emulsion. The resin emulsion forms fine pores in the ink receiving layer, thereby increasing the flexibility of the recording medium. In the recording medium disclosed in Japanese Paten Laid-Open No. 2001-096898, an underlying support layer containing a water-soluble resin is provided between a substrate and an ink receiving layer to increase the flexibility of the recording medium. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-183807 discloses a recording medium including an intermediate layer containing a resin having a glass transition temperature of 50° C. or less between a substrate and an ink receiving layer.